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Chili Sauce

A sweet and spicy tomato-based sauce with vinegar, spices, and peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Chili Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine tomatoes and sugar in a large pot.

  2. Add vinegar, cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg, ginger, ground onion, red peppers, and salt.

  3. Cook over low heat for 3 hours, stirring occasionally until thickened.

  4. Bottle the sauce while hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the sauce and provide its body and base flavor as they cook down.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the sauce.
Red peppers
Add heat and a pungent, vegetal bite to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat until thickened. Long, gentle simmering lets water evaporate slowly so the sauce thickens without scorching on the bottom of the pot. Stirring occasionally keeps the sugars from burning and sticking, which would give a bitter, dark taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Tomato 14Green Tomato 4Raw 3Sweet 3 See all 392 →

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